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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
I was absolutely captivated by this book. The real and raw emotion of a time to figure out life after college really resonated with me, and would thoroughly recommend this book to others!
See more reviews on my blog, rhiareads.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
I wasn't blown away by this. I suppose I'm used to books with a little more tension, and this unfortunately just felt a little dull for me. I understand the message the book is trying to get across - that life isn't always what you expect, and it's certainly not easy - but I felt like there could have been a little more conflict in the narrative. I also had a hard time connecting with the characters, as I found both Evan and Julia incredibly irritating.
I do think this could have been quite good, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who will enjoy it, but it fell flat for me.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
I wasn't blown away by this. I suppose I'm used to books with a little more tension, and this unfortunately just felt a little dull for me. I understand the message the book is trying to get across - that life isn't always what you expect, and it's certainly not easy - but I felt like there could have been a little more conflict in the narrative. I also had a hard time connecting with the characters, as I found both Evan and Julia incredibly irritating.
I do think this could have been quite good, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who will enjoy it, but it fell flat for me.
Surprisingly really enjoyed this book. Reminded me to appreciate and enjoy the little things in life again. The ending was perfect for the two characters Julia and Evan.
This book felt about 100 pages too long. I was engaged enough with the characters so want to know what would happen, but the chapters often felt meandering. By the end, I was only in it to see if Adam would, in fact, use Julia as I had predicted. Once I learned I was right, I lost all interest. Okay read, it passed the time, but predictable and I’m not sure I would recommend it.
Wanted to love this book and persevered but just had to give up. Nothing happened to characters I couldn't really connect with. The New York setting was not enough to hold my interest. Disappointing
Full review at: http://www.everydayiwritethebookblog.com/2017/11/futures-anna-pitoniak/
(I'd really like to give this a 3.5)
Anna Pitoniak's The Futures is a novel about a particular slice of life in a very specific point in time: post-college New York City in the late 2000s. Julia and Evan met as freshmen at Yale and started dating after a few months of being close friends. They stayed together through his years as a Yale hockey player, her semester in France, and various college flirtations. After graduation, they move together to Manhattan, where Evan works as an analyst at a prestigious hedge fund and Julia, after a few weeks of flailing, takes an executive assistant job at a nonprofit funded by friends of her parents. As the year unfolds, their relationship is tested by a number of external forces (the market crash of '08, Julia's flirtation with a business journalist, Evan's long hours) as they try to navigate their adult lives, together and on their own.
Off the bat I'll say that there are some things I didn't like about The Futures. Julia is whiny and self-pitying, so paralyzed by indecision that she's constantly susceptible to the motives and whims of others. She's incapable of doing anything on her own, and the only characters she interacts with other than through work are people she knew before she came to NY. She blames everyone else for her problems and refuses to take responsibility for herself. Evan's not much better. He does have a moral compass, but he turns out to be pretty unfeeling and unsympathetic. Meanwhile, as noted above, the book is about a very small, specific New York world: privileged Ivy League twentysomethings living in fancy NY neighborhoods.
So what's good about this book, if its two main characters are unlikable and its purview is so narrow? Well, first, Pitoniak is a very good writer. I loved her little observations and details; she knows how to describe a room or a character and make it come to life in the most vivid way. Second, I am many years removed from those untethered, often depressing first years out of college, when you don't know what to do with yourself and you've lost the safety net of classmates and the college routine, but I remember them well. I, too, lived in New York during those years, and I remember that feeling of being surrounded by people who had a life and a plan, while I didn't. Pitoniak captured that all pretty well. The story unfolded nicely, and I was eager to know what was going to happen. The alternating narrative between Evan and Julia was pretty effective, and certainly helped to underscore the growing distance between the two.
The Futures is not a cautionary tale about the financial crash, but instead a smaller book about a few casualties of it. It may not be perfect, but it was entertaining and well-written, and I am glad I read it.
(I'd really like to give this a 3.5)
Anna Pitoniak's The Futures is a novel about a particular slice of life in a very specific point in time: post-college New York City in the late 2000s. Julia and Evan met as freshmen at Yale and started dating after a few months of being close friends. They stayed together through his years as a Yale hockey player, her semester in France, and various college flirtations. After graduation, they move together to Manhattan, where Evan works as an analyst at a prestigious hedge fund and Julia, after a few weeks of flailing, takes an executive assistant job at a nonprofit funded by friends of her parents. As the year unfolds, their relationship is tested by a number of external forces (the market crash of '08, Julia's flirtation with a business journalist, Evan's long hours) as they try to navigate their adult lives, together and on their own.
Off the bat I'll say that there are some things I didn't like about The Futures. Julia is whiny and self-pitying, so paralyzed by indecision that she's constantly susceptible to the motives and whims of others. She's incapable of doing anything on her own, and the only characters she interacts with other than through work are people she knew before she came to NY. She blames everyone else for her problems and refuses to take responsibility for herself. Evan's not much better. He does have a moral compass, but he turns out to be pretty unfeeling and unsympathetic. Meanwhile, as noted above, the book is about a very small, specific New York world: privileged Ivy League twentysomethings living in fancy NY neighborhoods.
So what's good about this book, if its two main characters are unlikable and its purview is so narrow? Well, first, Pitoniak is a very good writer. I loved her little observations and details; she knows how to describe a room or a character and make it come to life in the most vivid way. Second, I am many years removed from those untethered, often depressing first years out of college, when you don't know what to do with yourself and you've lost the safety net of classmates and the college routine, but I remember them well. I, too, lived in New York during those years, and I remember that feeling of being surrounded by people who had a life and a plan, while I didn't. Pitoniak captured that all pretty well. The story unfolded nicely, and I was eager to know what was going to happen. The alternating narrative between Evan and Julia was pretty effective, and certainly helped to underscore the growing distance between the two.
The Futures is not a cautionary tale about the financial crash, but instead a smaller book about a few casualties of it. It may not be perfect, but it was entertaining and well-written, and I am glad I read it.
If possible I would give this 3.5 stars, but I'm feeling gracious and rounding up. Pitoniak tells a convincing story of that feeling immediately after college when you're trying to figure out what to do next with your life. The characters are both believable, but just once, I'd like to see a novel in this genre tell this story from the point of view of characters who aren't privileged. All in all it was a good read and I enjoyed my time with it.
Pitoniak is an interesting writer whose shrewd observations about love and betrayal have a tone similar to Curtis Sittenfield's 'Prep'. The story is a simple one set in New York right before the market crash in 2008 with young and in love Yale graduates Evan and Julia moving to the city where Evan lands a job at a prestigious hedge fund, and Julia struggles to find footing in both her career and identity. I found myself marking the touchstones of the plot on the way, predicting things before they happened to the characters, but in hind sight I'm not sure this wasn't the authors intention from the start. This was a book I found I ultimately enjoyed, but strangely didn't leave me with any lasting impressions beyond a pleasant read.
[2.5 stars]
Thanks to Netgalley and Lee Boudreaux Books for providing me with an advance copy of this book.
I quite honestly don’t have a lot to say about The Futures. It’s the story of a quarter life crisis…something I certainly went through and could identify with. The “coming of age in your twenties in the big city” storyline always seems to suck me in, yet has proved disappointing the past few rounds (also Why We Came to the City).
Julia and Evan’s college and immediate post-college experience resembled my own to a certain extent (minus the Ivy League tag). Despite or (possibly because of?) this relatability, the plot was predictable and not particularly memorable. I was disappointed with the lack of “yes, that’s exactly how it is” writing, which could have upped the memorability factor for me. On the plus side, it was a nice, easy Brain Candy book that I never had to force myself to pick up.
For more reviews, visit my blog (https://www.sarahsbookshelves.com/).
Thanks to Netgalley and Lee Boudreaux Books for providing me with an advance copy of this book.
I quite honestly don’t have a lot to say about The Futures. It’s the story of a quarter life crisis…something I certainly went through and could identify with. The “coming of age in your twenties in the big city” storyline always seems to suck me in, yet has proved disappointing the past few rounds (also Why We Came to the City).
Julia and Evan’s college and immediate post-college experience resembled my own to a certain extent (minus the Ivy League tag). Despite or (possibly because of?) this relatability, the plot was predictable and not particularly memorable. I was disappointed with the lack of “yes, that’s exactly how it is” writing, which could have upped the memorability factor for me. On the plus side, it was a nice, easy Brain Candy book that I never had to force myself to pick up.
For more reviews, visit my blog (https://www.sarahsbookshelves.com/).